Hi @siol we have debated this at length within our team, your point was discussed thoroughly and we decided, for now, to go with steemit.life.
Many people want us to provide metrics and this way we can. It also helps us provide metrics to potential billboard co-branders and one day have a fully branded front end with onboarding tutorials, tools, FAQ's etc, Steemit will become a part of everyone's life eventually, so the .life TLD is fairly fitting.
Referrals don't currently pay anything but when they do, the proceeds will go to the @steemdrive initiative to further the campaign and SP will be accumulated to enable us to further help the community and vote on quality content, our vision is that @steemdrive will eventually be the Steemit "whale of the people!"